As the butterflies are churning and the gym echos with voices the varsity Cheer girls get ready for their competition. The girls came in first place overall in the competition and are up to 15th place in the state.

“In stunts as a backspot I pull up a lot of girls and help the flyer get in the air and help the bases even out the weight and take some weight off,” senior Sydney Stossel said. “I personally hope to better myself each competition and know that I’m helping everyone out in my group to the best of my ability and as much as I can. The season is going really good, out of my four years of cheer this is the most advanced team, with chemistry, skills, and teamwork.”

The cheerleaders are scored as a team, competing three different rounds. In those rounds the team gets scored based on a certain skill or motion and the difficulty level is also a point. The judges take what the cheerleaders do in each round and evaluate it based on how their skills are performed and your impression as a team overall.

“We’ve improved a lot since last year,” sophomore Lilian Huynh said. “We’ve almost gotten two springs, a tumbling skill, and our round two has gotten more points. We’ve gotten almost 100 more points then we did last year. Our team goals are to make it to regionals this year and hopefully states.”

Last year the cheer team was tied with Brandon for fourth place in the Flint Metro League, this year the girls moved up a spot and are tied with Clio for third.

““The energy in the gym gave us a lot of adrenaline and helped us perform well,” junior Maddie Hayden said. “I think having so many people there to cheer us on helped us to push ourselves and do our best”

The cheer team took first overall and won the competition. Their next competition is Friday Feb. 16 at home at 7 p.m..